


Terms Of Engagement

by scxlias



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 06:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5037877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scxlias/pseuds/scxlias
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott’s still not quite sure how he wound up engaged to the infuriated red-head stalking towards him, the sound of her heels clicking against the floor of the hotel lobby louder than gunshots in Scott’s head. </p>
<p>Or the one where a marriage is arranged and no one's all too happy at first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terms Of Engagement

Scott’s still not quite sure how he wound up engaged to the infuriated red-head stalking towards him, the sound of her heels clicking against the floor of the hotel lobby louder than gunshots in Scott’s head. 

It had started with a mention of trying for peace with the banshees at a conference almost a year ago, all eyes snapping to Scott as he spoke, and wound up in months of negotiations and preparations, a single brief meeting, lasting no longer than five minutes and far too formal, leading them to Scott standing, shocked, as Lydia jabbed her finger into his chest, drawing the attention of the whole hotel lobby.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” she hisses, forcing Scott back until he’s pressed against the front desk. The poor receptionist yelps, and scrambles away as Scott accidentally scatters her things from the surface of the desk. “I am not happy about this, Alpha. I did not consent to being married off to some animal like my life means nothing. You may be a hot shot among your kind, the legendary True Alpha, but you are not my Alpha. I am not yours to command, got it?” 

Scott nods, pressing his lips into a thin line as he rights himself. “I’m not an animal, Lydia,” Scott says quietly, gently resting his hands on Lydia’s shoulders to ease her away from him. “And you can call me Scott. I mean, we are going to be married.” 

Lydia huffs, jerking away from his touch. “I’ll be going up to our room, Alpha,” she snaps, snagging the room keys from the desk, flicking her hair over her shoulder and all but stomping away from him, heels clicking against the floor.

Scott turns to the terrified receptionist. “I’m so sorry,” he apologizes quietly, gathering the things he’d knocked from the desk and returning them to the young woman. “I hate to have caused such a scene. Sorry.” 

He gathers his luggage and the two bags Lydia had dropped at his feet when she’d arrived, throwing an apologetic look over his shoulder to the receptionist before following his angry fiancée to the elevators, catching her just as she’s getting on. 

She rolls her eyes as he darts through the closing doors, pursing her lips and remaining stubbornly silent the whole ride. She doesn’t speak again until Scott’s opening the door to their room. 

“What held you up?”

He glances back at her, raises an eyebrow. “I was helping the receptionist we scared the crap out of,” he replies, shoving the door open, letting Lydia in ahead of him and letting out a low whistle when he shoves his way in himself.

The room is huge, and under other circumstances Scott would be rather excited about exploring a little. But Lydia’s standing, staring at the enormous king sized bed that dominates a large portion of the room

She glances from the bed to Scott and back again, letting out a small noise of frustration. “Can’t even have the decency to give us a room with two fucking beds,” Lydia mutters angrily. Scott can practically taste her anger, the emotion is so thick in the air. She’s livid. 

“Hey,” Scott starts, and she rounds on him, eyes flashing darkly. Scott steps back. “I can sleep there,” he offers, gesturing to the large armchair in the corner of the room. “Lydia. You need to calm down, please, this is all going to work out. I promise you. Please, just calm down a little.”

The way Lydia pulls her hand back makes Scott think she might hit him. She settles for curling her fingers into a fist and just holding her hand in the air, her whole body trembling with rage. 

“Don’t,” she finally says, dropping her hand and glaring at him. “Don’t fucking tell me to calm down.” She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes for a long time. “I’m going next door, to my maid of honor’s room. Don’t expect me to be back until I have to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.”

Lydia returns exactly two hours before they need to leave, and gets ready alongside Scott in absolute silence. She saves the ring Scott had given to her the first time they met for very last, staring at it with her lips pressed together for a long moment before sliding it onto her finger. 

Scott wishes Stiles could be at his side for this. Instead, Derek stands at his side as his best man. The councils wouldn’t let humans into the ceremony. Scott had to fight them for months just to get them to allow his mother’s presence. She smiles at him every time she catches his eye during the rehearsal dinner. It still doesn’t feel right without Stiles there.   
The dinner goes off almost without a hitch. Scott’s certain everyone can sense the tension between he and Lydia, but other than that, everything goes as planned. 

That is, until Lydia glares at him halfway through a conversation with her parents and storms out of the banquet hall. 

Her father approaches Scott as Lydia’s leaving, a smile on his face despite the way his daughter had just walked away from him. Scott ignores him, bids his mother good night quickly and takes off after Lydia. He catches up to her as she’s slamming the door to their hotel room shut behind her. 

“Get out. Leave me alone,” she bites out and Scott can smell the salt of tears coming from her.   
He closes the door carefully behind him and takes a few cautious steps forward. “Lydia,” he starts, but she rounds on him and cuts him off.

“I said get out!” she screeches, her eyes going cloudy white as she scrubs tears off of her face. “Get out or I’ll scream. Go back to your pack and enjoy celebrating what you’ve done. Just leave me the fuck alone, Alpha McCall.” 

Her reaction is effective in getting Scott to do what she wants. When he sees her eyes changing, he reels back, not wanting to be close to Lydia if she does scream. 

“Lydia, Lydia, listen to me please,” Scott begs, throwing his hands out in a placating gesture. Her eyes clear slightly, the cloudy white obscuring her irises no longer as opaque. “Lydia, I know… trust me, I know how much it sucks to be forced into life changing things. I know. And I know that this is so unfair to you. I know you didn’t really get a choice and that’s so, so wrong, and I’m sorry, I–”

“Didn’t really get a choice?” she hisses, stepping closer, her breathing heavy. “Didn’t… I didn’t get any choice at all. My father bartered me away like I’m some goddamn object. He took away any choice I had. He gave me away to be married into a pack of fucking animals–”

Scott cuts Lydia off this time, “I’m not an animal!” he shouts, louder than he meant to. “Sorry,” he apologizes sheepishly before continuing, quieter now, “I’m not an animal Lydia. And you’re not the only one who didn’t get a choice. The wolf council took away my choice just like the banshee council took yours, because I asked if we could try for peace. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want to force you into something like this.”

Lydia laughs almost hysterically, before crossing her arms over her chest. The cloudy white dissipates entirely from her eyes. “Like hell you know what is like to be forced into something, Alpha,” she mumbles.

“You think I don’t?” And Scott hates the next words he says, hates how he sounds like he’s trying to make her feel guilty, but Lydia has to know. “I do, Lydia, I really do. I was born human. You know that? I had to fight the council for months to get them to allow my own mother to be at the wedding. But that’s not… point is, I was bitten when I was 16, against my will. The bite was forced on me. I was attacked in the woods and left for dead.” He takes a deep shaky breath, twists his fingers together. “And I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t… I’ve never killed anyone. I’m a True Alpha. I didn’t ask to be an Alpha either. It just happened. I earned my power, but I didn’t ask for it.”

“Oh wow,” Lydia drawls sarcastically. “You’ve never killed anyone. Good for you. You’re only accepting having someone traded to you like fucking cattle,” she spits at him, stepping closer, her eyes flickering white for a moment. “You may not be a killer and maybe you weren’t born this way, but you sure as hell are a monster. You’re a goddamn animal and I am disgusted to have to marry you. I am disgusted that you agreed to be married to me like this, Alpha McCall.” She hesitates for a moment before looking down at her hands. She turns them over, looks at her palms, and then lets out a frustrated sound somewhere between a groan and a shout. Breathing heavily, Lydia grits her teeth and wrenches the ring off her finger, hurling it at Scott. “Wouldn’t be surprised if there was someone else you were actually going to give that to,” she mumbles angrily.

Scott can’t do anything more than sit there, shocked and hurt by Lydia’s words. He catches the ring easily when she throws it, turning it over in his fingers to look at the gemstones, a small diamond with even smaller emeralds on each side of it. Its a beautiful ring in his opinion, one he’d chosen to give to Lydia without the prompting of either council.

As Lydia tries to push past him, Scott sighs heavily, closing his eyes, fighting back tears of his own at this point. “Yeah,” he agrees quietly, voice barely audible. “There was someone I was gonna give this to.” 

Lydia stops dead in her tracks, gets in Scott’s space, backs him into a wall with one finger poking into his chest. “So what? You expect you’re going to be with them and I’m just going to be your side chick? You expect I’m just gonna sit around waiting for you to come home from fucking your girl every night? Is that what you’re thinking I’m gonna do, Alpha? I know my father thinks that’s what I’m meant to do, be some perfect goddamn housewife but I’m telling you I–” 

“She’s dead, Lydia.” Scott cuts her off roughly, and he feels bad, but he doesn’t want to just sit there and listen to her shouting those things at him.   
Lydia backs up step. Scott pushes past her and sits in the arm chair in the corner of the room, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands. 

“What?” Lydia asks quietly.

“Dead. She’s dead. I was almost positive I was going to marry her, I loved her and she was amazing and I watched her get killed when we were seventeen and I couldn’t stop it.”

“You bought a ring that early?” Her next question is still spit at Scott like acid, but its not as forceful as her previous words.

Scott shakes his head. “No. This ring,” he picks his head up, turns the shiny silver ring over in his fingers, “this was my abuela’s. On my mom’s side. When she died, I was fourteen, and she gave me the ring and told me to give it the girl I loved. She said that one day I’d find a person who made me feel like I was everything I was meant to be, someone who made me the best me, and that I should give them this ring and make sure I hold onto them forever,” he stares down at the ring in his hands, so small compared to his large hands, and thinks back ten years, to his hands much smaller, and his abuela’s wrinkled, shaking fingers placing a beautiful ring in his palm, her loving words as she spoke to him. “I found that person, just like my abuela said I would. And I lost her,” Scott’s voice cracks, but he keeps going. “I couldn’t give it to Allison, and I know I don’t love you, but you are going to be my wife. I gave it to you, to show that I’m serious about this. Arranged or not, you’re going to be my wife, my mate, and that means something to me.”

Scott sighs, pockets the ring and stands. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry about everything. I’m sorry you’re stuck with me when you could have someone better. I’m sorry you’re stuck with someone you think is a monster. I’m sorry you don’t get a choice. It’s awful, I get that. But if I wanted to stand around and let someone call me an animal, I’d call up my dad. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to sit here and listen to you insult me. This is awful for you. Its terrible, and I’m sorry. But I don’t want to listen to this.” 

“Scott…”

“I’m going back down to the reception. I’ll tell everyone you weren’t feeling well. Don’t wait up, and don’t worry about the bed. I’ll sleep in the chair.” 

Scott walks out without another word. 

He avoids Lydia’s father at all costs. He doesn’t miss the way Derek’s eyes never leave him for the rest of the night. 

Not for the first time since the marriage was arranged, Scott wishes he could get drunk enough to forget even his own name. 

He tries valiantly. 

He fails. 

Scott doesn’t make it back to the room that night. He crashes on the chair in Derek’s room. 

~*~

The next day is a flurry of getting ready, dresses in bags being brought down the hall, suit hung up on bathroom door, the smell of nail polish and hairspray. Lydia’s father made sure this wedding would be extravagant. It does nothing but make Scott uneasy. 

Derek helps him get ready, presses his abuela’s ring into his hand and tells him to hold onto it, and hugs him tightly before he goes out to where people are waiting. 

“What you’re doing Scott… not a lot of people would do this. Not a lot of people would be willing to go this far for the good of their people. You… there’s no one quite like you. I’m proud of the man you’ve turned into since Peter bit you. I’m proud to call you my Alpha, Scott. Don’t be too nervous out there. I’ll be right there with you,” Derek says as he hugs him.   
Scott has to stop himself from tearing up as the door shuts behind Derek. 

The door opens again as he’s turning the ring over in his fingers again. He’s about to jump up and hide it in his pocket, plaster a smile on his face and assure whoever it is that he’s fine, he’ll be ready to go out to the altar in fifteen minutes. No he doesn’t need anything. 

But its Lydia standing in the doorway, twisting her hands in front of her, looking nervous in a way Scott’s never seen her. 

She looks gorgeous in her dress, sparkling silver shoes peeking out from underneath the hem of the smooth silk. 

He stands, ducking his head in what another wolf would see as a sign of respect. He doesn’t think of how Lydia will see it. “You look beautiful. But I think its bad luck to see the bride before the wedding,” Scott comments. 

Lydia rolls her eyes and comes into the room, sitting down in the chair across from Scott’s that Derek had been occupying moments earlier. 

She mumbles something Scott can’t hear at first. She looks up, sees his confusion and sighs. 

“I said they can fuck off. I want to talk to you now, when I know I can get you alone, when I know I can talk to you. Not Alpha McCall.” 

Scott furrows his brow in confusion, but only says, “Okay.”

He sits in the seat he’d been occupying before, ring still in his hand. Lydia reaches out to stop his nervous fidgeting and grabs the ring while she’s got her hands on his. “It really is beautiful. Your girlfriend would’ve been lucky to have it. Didn’t think werewolves did rings though.”

“She was human,” Scott says quietly. “Allison was a hunter, actually,” he explains, he eyes dropping to the floor. He can feel Lydia’s mood change, though he’s too stressed, his nerves too shot for him to figure out what she’s feeling. She’s good at hiding it too, he doubts he’d be able to put his finger on what her mood had changed into. 

“Well, I wanted to apologize, for the way I acted with you yesterday.” Scott’s eyebrows shoot towards his hairline. “Don’t say anything, just shut up and listen.” Lydia pauses then adds, “Please.” Scott nods. There’s another long pause, Lydia staring at her hands before she slips the ring back onto her finger. “Look. I’ve spent my whole life learning about werewolves. How you’re ruthless monsters who only care about yourselves. I’ve only ever heard horror stories about you.”   
“What are you–”

Lydia holds up a hand, cuts him off. “I said shut up.” Scott shuts up. “I thought you’d be like that. I thought you’d be… well, an animal.” She sighs, rubs at her temples. “Okay, listen, I’m not going to change how I think right away. That’s not… it doesn’t work that way. But you’ve been sickeningly nice to me this whole time and your friend… beta… Malia, she came by our room last night, and just talked, for at least two hours about how great of an Alpha you are.” 

“Lydia–” 

“Shut up.” She closes her eyes as she speaks again. “I’m just trying to say I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been calling you an animal and I’ve been being so rude because I’m pissed to hell and back at my father for giving me away like this when you’re going through exactly the same situation. You can’t expect things to be great right away, that’s unrealistic. But if you’re willing to be patient, I’ll try, Alpha. I’m not saying I’m gonna love you, but I’ll do my best to like you. Get it?” 

Scott nods, makes sure Lydia’s done speaking, and talks again. “I understand. I get how hard this must be for you Lydia, and its okay that you’re upset. More than okay that you’re upset. But I really don’t appreciate being called an animal. I don’t want to control you or anything like that, and I’m willing to try too, as long as you’ll promise not to call me an animal any more, and to try to get along with my pack.” 

Lydia nods, opens her mouth and Scott cuts her off the same way she did him. “Shh. One more thing. Call me Scott. Please.”

“Alright,” Lydia says, standing. “We can try. We’re stuck together forever. I should… we should try.” She heads for the door and pauses with her hand on the handle. “We’ll make something work.”

Its not perfect, god, its not even close, but this is better, so much better than before. “I’ll see you a few minutes Lydia.”

“Keep an eye out for me Scott. I’ll be the one in white.”


End file.
